Watermelon clothes, the latest childrenswear craze from China

Some Western parents adore the mini me kid collections so they can have their children dressed just like themselves, while others want to embrace the environment and are‘green,’ want to dress their kids in organic made clothing, because the fibers are free from herbicides and pesticides.

Strangely enough the latest fashion trend for childrenswear comes from China – not exactly best known for their track record on environmental issues and human health – and involves the tasty summer fruit, watermelon.

The Chinese are not making childrenswear from watermelon pulp, rind or seeds and turning them into fibers or fabrics, but are actually dressing their children in watermelons.

China's Xinhua news agency first reported the trend in July, sourcing the origin of the fad in Wenzhou city, where parents of a toddler dressed him in a watermelon overall on a hot summer day, so he could be cool – as in fresh, and not in the slang sense of the word.

Apparently the photo of the child was put on Weibo (China’s Twitter) and the photograph was so cute and funny, that other parents have decided to follow the watermelon fashion craze with more pictures are popping up, with everyone trying to outdo themselves.

Parents are also designing new variations on the watermelon overalls, such as watermelon bikinis, hula skirts, watermelon armor, including masks, glasses and we can’t forget hats – in the past we’ve seen people in certain poor countries even wearing dug out watermelons as motorcycle helmets.

Before anyone wants to pull out a carving knife to and get into the Chinese fashion craze and wants to create a new 'watermelon line', on People's Daily, a dermatologist said that while the chance for watermelon allergies is small, there is a possibility of skin irritation as baby skin is highly sensitive and the moist rind could also breed bacteria and cause infections.